2016 Canadian SLP Thread

[klfstudent]

1 hour ago, annmac07 said:

I just received an email that I have been wait listed at Dalhousie! I am a first time applicant so I am very happy with this response! Hoping to be accepted off of the list! 

I also received this email and I'm in the same situation! Hopefully this means more good news to come!

[annmac07]

17 minutes ago, klfstudent said:

I also received this email and I'm in the same situation! Hopefully this means more good news to come!

Congrats! I am hoping the same. For now, the waiting game continues!

[lily1000]

hey everybody. first time applying to Dal SLP, accepted (notified this past Monday, March 14). i had 3 references: my thesis supervisor, one prof, and an slp i volunteered for/shadowed for several months (I think this is what helped me get in most- both the experience and reference which i know was very strong ) my gre scores were nothing to be proud of lol (v=154 q=150 aw=4.0) , so for anybody nervous about a piss poor gre there is hope ...though my sGPA was good at 3.96/4.0...just sharing my stats with y'all so you can see ...if one part of your app isn't 'great' there is still hope! 

[J Mack]

56 minutes ago, lily1000 said:

hey everybody. first time applying to Dal SLP, accepted (notified this past Monday, March 14). i had 3 references: my thesis supervisor, one prof, and an slp i volunteered for/shadowed for several months (I think this is what helped me get in most- both the experience and reference which i know was very strong ) my gre scores were nothing to be proud of lol (v=154 q=150 aw=4.0) , so for anybody nervous about a piss poor gre there is hope ...though my sGPA was good at 3.96/4.0...just sharing my stats with y'all so you can see ...if one part of your app isn't 'great' there is still hope! 

Congrats on your acceptance! It is so nice to see some first time applicants getting accepted as this is also my first time My GRE is also a weak link in my application (at least the VR and QR parts) and although I didn't apply to Dal, I did apply to Alberta and they look at your GRE scores. So it is great to see that Dal valued the more relevant parts of your application over the GRE, which I think tells a committee nothing about your potential as an SLP (rant!). Haha.

Edited March 17, 2016 by J Mack

[speechiehopeful]

I also got put on the wait list!! This gives me hope for other schools now. I also have poor GRE scores so looks like that may not be a huge deal. Does anyone know how many people they would put on a wait list?

Edited March 17, 2016 by speechiehopeful

[speechies]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering since we apply mid semester, how do they know that we have actually completed our degree? Is this therefore a conditional acceptance? if you are going to graduate in Winter semester? 

[tillersaurus]

14 hours ago, speechies said:

Hey everyone,

I was wondering since we apply mid semester, how do they know that we have actually completed our degree? Is this therefore a conditional acceptance? if you are going to graduate in Winter semester? 

Dalhousie requires that you finish your degree with at least a 3.3 GPA for the acceptance to still be valid. McGill says there are two steps left: providing a transcript (they don't say anything about what your GPA has to be, so hopefully it is equally low, haha) and providing proof of graduation. Those are the only two that I know, though - I don't know what the other schools would require!

[speechies]

1 hour ago, tillersaurus said:

Dalhousie requires that you finish your degree with at least a 3.3 GPA for the acceptance to still be valid. McGill says there are two steps left: providing a transcript (they don't say anything about what your GPA has to be, so hopefully it is equally low, haha) and providing proof of graduation. Those are the only two that I know, though - I don't know what the other schools would require!

Ok that makes sense that the other schools will do the same.. I already graduated but my university did not send my transcript with the conferral date

[tillersaurus]

I am 99% certain that I'll be turning down my seat at Dalhousie, so hopefully that is a bit of good news to some of you who are on the waitlist!

[klfstudent]

1 hour ago, tillersaurus said:

I am 99% certain that I'll be turning down my seat at Dalhousie, so hopefully that is a bit of good news to some of you who are on the waitlist!

What is the date you have to decide by?

[J Mack]

Looking back at the results page for U Alberta, I have a feeling they might be sending out acceptances next week  They haven't gone later than the 3rd week of March for years so fingers crossed! This waiting is killing me.

[treaclemineroad]

Looks like they're starting today, actually. Just got an offer of admission from Alberta.

[klfstudent]

5 minutes ago, treaclemineroad said:

Looks like they're starting today, actually. Just got an offer of admission from Alberta.

Congrats! What time did you get it? It seems kinda late on a Friday night to be sending out acceptances. 

[tillersaurus]

22 minutes ago, klfstudent said:

Congrats! What time did you get it? It seems kinda late on a Friday night to be sending out acceptances. 

I think they sent it at the last possible second during business hours - I got my e-mail at like 9:30PM NL time - hilariously surprising to get when you're getting ready for bed. Nobody should still be open when I'm getting ready for bed, lol.

[tillersaurus]

8 hours ago, klfstudent said:

What is the date you have to decide by?

7th of April! Alberta's deadline is the same. People will likely hear back again on the 8th, I'd say.

[m_456]

Received an offer of admission from the U of A ! 

[klfstudent]

Accepted to Alberta!! 

[J Mack]

I got my acceptance to Alberta tonight as well via email! 630 their time! What a great way to start the weekend  This is my first acceptance, I am so relieved/thrilled!

Edited March 19, 2016 by J Mack

[speechiehopeful]

Omg got an acceptance email as well! I just woke up my whole family...Except it's almost 1 am so I can't call call people to freak out!

[sjvwl]

I am finally emerging from lurkdom to say I received my UofA acceptance as well! I am a first time applicant but I have to share this success with a handful of people in my life who helped me build my experience and application over the last 2.5 years of my undergrad. The first 2.5 years of my undergrad were very rough and I changed my degree program three times (average B-level indecisive student). I then left university for three years and returned to yet another new program which finally suited me and put me on the road to SLP.  I maintained a 4.0 for the last 2.5 years of my degree and my prereq GPA is a 3.85. My GRE was V162, Q159, A4.5. I volunteered/worked in two research labs and volunteered/worked mainly with people who stutter and people with aphasia. My two academic references were my supervisors from my two lab placements, and my clinical reference was the clinician on my main volunteer placement.

Because I am not your typical undergrad with a normal 4 year transcript, not to mention less than stellar grades in my first 2.5 years... I was lacking any confidence that I would get in, let alone on my first try. But here goes to show that you can really screw up the first half of your undergrad and pull it all together in the end.

Let me know if you have any questions! I am happy to help  I wouldn't have been successful on my first try if it weren't for my constant questions to my friends in or graduated from the program.

[J Mack]

I posted earlier about my acceptance to Alberta but here is my info for all the future speechies out there:

• Canadian applicant first attempt. Major= Children's Literature (4 year English BA) and Ling and Psych minors. cGPA 3.6/4 and SubGPA (ORPAS) 3.91/4. GRE: V149, Q152 AW5 (can you say inconsistent lol?) Two summer paid internships with an SLP (rehab centre paediatrics), one paid research assistantship with an SLP (rehab centre paediatrics), 3 years volunteering experience with two SLPs (rehab centre and school), and two days of shadowing in hospital (paediatrics) and adult SLP settings (aphasia), TA experience and undergrad research (children's lit). 8 undergrad scholarship awards and tons of field related workshop credentials. Very strong clinical and academic references: the SLP I have worked with for the last few years, the prof I T'A d for, and a linguistics prof. 

I hope these details help someone out one day! I feel like my acceptance goes to show that like the schools say, you actually don't need a Ling or Psych major. or an honours. I think a children's lit major was unique and the right school would appreciate that because it is great knowledge to have as SLP crosses over with literacy so much and we use books in therapy all the time! Also, you don't not need fantastic GRE scores...thank god. That was a nightmare.

 

Happy Saturday!

[J Mack]

On November 28, 2015 at 11:36 PM, kelseymg said:

Hi all!

I'm a current first year student in SLP at the U of A.

I was in your shoes a year ago and had zero faith that I'd actually be accepted anywhere, let alone to both the U of A and U of T.

I won't be much use in terms of helping you navigate the application forms but I am happy to answer any questions you may have (just be patient, I'm in the middle of exams :P).

What I can tell you is what I love about the program at the U of A, and trust me that's a long list.

Good luck everyone, and have some faith in yourselves!

 

Hi Kelsey!

I just got into Alberta last night and I am also from Winnipeg  Can you tell me what you like about it there? I would love to hear how it is going and how the move to Edmonton has been from Wpg.

 

Thank you

[Beeee5]

I have not received anything from U of A as of yet... Feeling a bit disappointed. Does U of A usually send out all of their acceptances at one time?

[Bananis]

1 hour ago, Beeee25 said:

I have not received anything from U of A as of yet... Feeling a bit disappointed. Does U of A usually send out all of their acceptances at one time?

I'm from Sask too, and a first time applicant. I only applied to Alberta because I didn't have the prereqs for anything else really, so I'm getting a little disappointed here too... Is this your first time to apply? What kinds of things have you been doing to get experience? It's really hard in Sask to shadow slps and there's very little opportunity to do research here I'm finding... So many SLPs said they aren't 'allowed' to take students on. I'm wondering how everyone gets these internships and such. If I don't get in this year, I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to leave Sask...

I hope they send out more acceptances on Monday. It's going to be a stressful week.

[tillersaurus]

25 minutes ago, Bananis said:

I'm from Sask too, and a first time applicant. I only applied to Alberta because I didn't have the prereqs for anything else really, so I'm getting a little disappointed here too... Is this your first time to apply? What kinds of things have you been doing to get experience? It's really hard in Sask to shadow slps and there's very little opportunity to do research here I'm finding... So many SLPs said they aren't 'allowed' to take students on. I'm wondering how everyone gets these internships and such. If I don't get in this year, I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to leave Sask...

I hope they send out more acceptances on Monday. It's going to be a stressful week.

If you can't get into S-LP, see if you can get into a similar field! If you look at my stats, I have relatively little actual S-LP volunteer time (I only volunteered from last September onwards - about 4 or 5 months at application time! Some other applicants on this site had years in S-LP practices), but I took on ABA Therapy (behavioural therapy for children with ASD) as a part-time job for three full years, and developed enough clinical skills that I think schools didn't mind that I had done mostly observation with S-LPs. I technically had both clinical skills and knowledge of what the job was like, even if I didn't develop them in the same place. Just be inventive, get whatever you can get and play the experience you do have up in your statements and you should be totally fine! Any work with the populations that S-LPs work with would look good for sure (Can you volunteer to do social visits with geriatric patients at a rehab hospital? Can you volunteer for a local feeding group or social skill development group? Could you volunteer with an audiologist for a little while?).

If you're really worried about it, ask some speech pathologists if you can do material prep for them. I worked with S-LPs who dealt exclusively with autistic kids, and they needed a basically infinite supply of new visuals for visual schedules and recognition activities! Making new visuals means taking photos, sizing them correctly, lots of cutting and laminating, and attaching velcro. It also does the S-LP a huuuuuge favour since they can focus more on the clinical side of things, and doing those things for them could keep you away from the actual clients (since it might well be hospital policy to not have strangers in therapy sessions) while still getting you hours that would count for your application. Or try e-mailing private practices - since the clinicians there are the business owners, you are saving them precious time and money by offering your help.